In Sonny's Blues, my first impressions were of a set of brothers that had deep differences but in the end, they seemed to come together through tragedy.  I first had the impression that the speaker was a woman until Sonny referred to him as brother.  I especially liked the piano influences.  As with being a musician myself, I can understand how so much emotion and stock can be put into a performance.

What struck me the most interesting in Videotape was how they described the girls emotions and reactions.  It was a bit unnerving to read about such events but at the same time, interesting because not often does something like this actually happen.  I didn't really understand the point of making this into a somewhat fictional story.